During the news briefing meeting of the Guangzhou Municipal Government on Dec.16th, the latest bus and metro preferential ticket system was announced and it will come into effect on January 1st, 2010.
As introduced by Zhang Wei, the Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Municipal Communications Commission in the briefing, Yang-cheng-tong card holders, after swiping their same cards in order to take metro and/or buses for 15 times during a one month period (assuming the cumulative times used include metro and bus rides), can enjoy a 40% discount starting from the 16th time the card is used. The discount for cumulative times used will not extend to the next month.
Concerning the idea that equipment needs to be upgraded for the connection of buses and metro, the inauguration of the new preferential ticket system will be carried out in two phases �C first, starting from January 1st, 2010, when the new bus preferential tickets commence to come into effect and cumulative usage times will be counted only for bus rides and not for metro rides during this phase.
Student card holders can enjoy a 50% discount when taking buses and metro. The elderly and the severely disabled will continue to enjoy the current favorable policy. The present cost of monthly bus tickets will terminate on December 31st, 2009.
Starting from May 1st next year, each swipe of the Yang-cheng-tong card on either metro or buse lines will be counted as accumulative use times. The current metro monthly tickets are valid till April 30th of next year.
The new system, allowing passengers to enjoy discounts according to their actual riding times, is more convenient than the present system which requires passengers to recharge monthly tickets and, as Zhang pointed out, with the new system, passengers can save not only the trouble of recharging monthly tickets, but also the effort to estimate their probable frequency of taking public transportation in next month and wondering whether they can enjoy any real benefits from their monthly ticket purchases.
(Translated by Guangzhou Association of Foreign Affairs Translators)
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